Despite trillions of naira invested in Nigeria’s electricity sector, repeated national grid collapses in 2026 have renewed concerns that funding alone cannot fix the country’s long-standing power crisis.
Energy experts, system operators, and industry analysts have raised concerns in separate interviews with Nairametrics following fresh system failures this year.
They argue that the outages expose deep structural, technical, and governance weaknesses that continue to undermine grid stability despite heavy government spending.
What they are saying
Energy experts and system operators say the grid failures reflect fundamental design and coordination problems that money alone cannot fix. They argue that without deep reforms, increased funding may only prolong existing inefficiencies.
“We talk about expansion, but in reality, a lot of what happens is emergency repair. You can’t keep stretching an old system and expect stability,” a senior engineer at the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), who pleaded anonymity, told Nairametrics.
“When there is a disturbance, there is little redundancy to absorb the shock. That’s why a fault in one part of the country can cascade and shut down the entire system,” an engineer at the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.
He added, “Funding is important, but it is not the silver bullet. You can inject all the money in the world, but if the grid is weak, poorly maintained, and badly managed, collapses will keep happening.”
“If I were to go back there, one of the things I would do is to be more brutal, radical. The system in Nigeria is designed not to perform,” former Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) chairman, Dr Sam Amadi, said in an earlier interview with Nairametrics.
Gas suppliers also maintain that although some arrears have been settled, uncertainty around payment timelines and pricing continues to undermine long-term supply planning.
Experts maintain that repeated grid failures show the limits of funding-driven interventions without matching operational discipline, accountability, and planning reforms.
More Insights
In the past two years, the Federal Government has rolled out several large-scale financial interventions aimed at stabilising the electricity market.
These include a N4 trillion bond programme to clear legacy debts owed to electricity generation companies and gas suppliers, alongside a N185 billion gas debt settlement to secure fuel supply for thermal plants.
- Budgetary allocation to the Ministry of Power surged to N2.086 trillion in the 2025 fiscal year, with over N2.076 trillion earmarked for capital projects such as transmission expansion and grid reinforcement.
- Under the Presidential Power Initiative, about N150 billion was allocated to transmission projects, while around N700 billion was approved through FAAC for the rollout of 1.1 million electricity meters nationwide by the end of 2025.
- Despite these interventions, Nigeria recorded multiple national grid collapses in 2025, with at least two already occurring in early 2026.
The repeated failures have raised questions about the effectiveness of the spending and the continued fragility of the transmission network.
While the government’s bond programme has eased liquidity pressures for generation companies, sector players say clearing debts without fixing transmission bottlenecks has not translated into grid stability.
Generation companies argue that increasing power output without the capacity to evacuate it safely only worsens system instability.
- A senior NDPHC engineer told Nairametrics that unresolved transmission constraints continue to limit how much power can be delivered reliably to consumers.
He said, “You can generate more power, but if the grid can’t evacuate it safely, you are creating more instability,” the engineer said. “That’s how you end up with frequent collapses.”
- Analysts have also raised governance concerns, citing overlapping responsibilities among the Ministry of Power, TCN, the Nigerian Independent System Operator, NERC, and other market institutions.
Energy analysts such as Betty Onalapo have called for an independent forensic audit of the national grid to assess how funds have been spent and whether projects delivered value.
For Dr. Amadi, setting up a Presidential Review Taskforce of real professionals will go a long way to address the issues in the power sector.
He said, “Electricity challenge is not just engineering; it’s about adaptive capacity and understanding of the market. The job of the taskforce will also be to look at the various aspects of electricity supply industry and recommend quick interventions.”
Former Bureau of Public Service Reforms Director-General, Dr Joe Abah, has also questioned Nigeria’s reliance on a single, centralised grid, arguing that decentralised or regional grids could reduce systemic risk and improve reliability.
“Why should the whole country go dark at the same time?” Abah queried in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
As electricity demand continues to rise, the experts say, without transparent audits and structural reforms, Nigeria risks repeating a costly cycle of spending without stability.
Get up to speed
Nigeria’s transmission infrastructure remains one of the weakest links in the electricity value chain, with many assets operating beyond their originally designed lifespan. Investigations by Nairametrics show that several 330kV and 132kV transmission lines are decades old and increasingly prone to failure.
- Sector insiders told Nairametrics that funding announcements often outpace actual execution, with projects delayed by procurement bottlenecks, right-of-way challenges, and weak supervision.
- Operators say the grid frequently runs close to its maximum tolerance, leaving little room to absorb shocks when faults occur.
- Delays in completing key transmission projects under the Presidential Power Initiative have further constrained the system’s resilience.
As a result, even minor disturbances can cascade into nationwide outages, exposing longstanding planning and coordination gaps.
FG keeps mum
Nairametrics sought comments from the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) but received no response.
Calls and messages sent to the company’s spokesperson, Mrs Ndidi Mbah, were not returned as of the time of filing this report.
What you should know
Nairametrics reports on Tuesday that the national grid had collapsed again, plunging the country into a nationwide blackout and marking the second system failure recorded in 2026 within one week.
- NISO had attributed the earlier nationwide outage to a system-wide disturbance.
- Former presidential candidate and ex-Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, had linked recurring grid collapses to persistent leadership failures, calling for urgent reforms in the power sector.
From 2022 to 2023, Nigeeia achieved 400 days with ZERO grid collapse.
Nairametrics reported on it.
How what this achieved?
What lessons can be learned? How can these be applied?
Another problem is how we think ans unfortunately even this article reflects it. Why is the power sector program limited to the past two years?
Why are we not tracking before that?
Does that kind of thinking lead us to discard prior progress?
Will Nigeria make progress if power is viewed and tackled as a single term project?
Sometimes our mindsets as citizens, pushes out leaders to act in ways that prevents sustainable development.